OCCULT VIEW

There are beliefs that no one truly dies until all living memory of the deceased vanishes from the earth.  So long as a single person…a spouse, sibling, child or friend remembers someone they knew in life, the deceased are not truly dead.  Final death occurs only when all living memory of a person is gone; when the last person who personally remembers the deceased has also passed away.  Then an individual passes into history and is nevermore.

There is some truth with this idea.  The dead really do continue to exist in our memories.  And the memory can seem so real it appears as if they are still alive, mostly in our dreams.  In our dreams we have far more vivid memories then possible when awake.  The dreams can become so clear, we may question if it was only a dream, or if the dead actually visited us while we dreamed.

My mom died two years ago of cancer.  It was a horrible experience, and I blogged about it back then.  It was hard for my dad, but he is ok now.  He is a tough guy.  He was born in Lithuania and experienced WWII as a child in Eastern Europe.  After the war his family immigrated to America, and I am his son.  So he is a tough guy, having faced horrible events as a child.  He was in Nazi Germany during WWII while the Allies were bombing German cities.  He recalls seeing a woman fleeing a flaming building covered with fire as she clasping her child to her breast trying to escape.  Horrible, terrible stuff.  Those experiences formed my dad’s view of life.

The point is my father is not a sentimental guy given to emotional flights of fancy.  Yet sometimes he dreams of his wife, my mom.  Last week I asked him if he still thinks of mom.  He said he had a very vivid dream of her.

He dreamt he was in the first apartment he and mom lived in.  It was in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago long ago.  He is now 79 years old.  Mom was in the doorway of a hallway, standing there just looking at him.  She did not say a word, just made eye contact.  And she was happy, with a compassionate gaze.  She was not the age when they lived in the apartment when they first married, but at her prime.

However, she wore the robe she had when she was sick, when she died of cancer.  Dad mentioned that…she was wearing her last robe.  The robe she had at the hospital.

He said in his dream, it was so clear, that he felt she was right there before him.  Even after he awoke it was clear in his mind.  When I chatted with him later, he said he could visualize the dream.

I asked him if he thought mom actually visited him in his dream?  Just to say hi?  I’m still here, and I am watching over you and I love you?  Or was it just a dream.  He didn’t know.

Merely a dream or more, the dead are not dead until the last person who remembers them no longer exists.

The King of Hearts playing card has an intriguing, even mysterious image. People have long noticed the King of Hearts’ curious pose. It shows the king holding a sword behind his head. Or is he stabbing himself? Because of his pose the card has been called the suicide king.

In some playing cards the design makes it appear as if the sword-wielding hand belongs to another person: a third hand. Perhaps it belongs to an assassin? On many of these designs the sleeves of his two hands don’t exactly match. The reverse side of the card also gives the appearance of both hands holding his wardrobe while a mysterious third hand appears from behind wielding a weapon.

Above is an example where the sleeves have different colors. The hand with the sword has a red sleeve, plus an additional bracelet. Who is actually holding that sword if not the king? It’s not hard to imagine this was the intent of the designer, hidden in plain sight for centuries. Could there be a subtle rebellious, anti-royalty/authority element created by the original designer? Down with the world power structure!

There is another more esoteric, occult possibility behind the mystery of the King of Heart’s curious sword position. Tarot decks inspired modern playing cards. The tarot is filled with strange imagery in strange poses. The awkward stance of the card’s characters served a symbolic purpose; they are not by accident or due to poor artistry.

An example is the tarot’s first card, the Juggler or Magician. The occult symbolism in the Tarot of Marseilles was recognized and made more explicit in later renderings. The strange stance of the juggler, the very design of the card all has meaning. The table in the lower half forms a square, which is an alchemical symbol for matter and the physical world. And so the top and legs of the table frame a square containing the soil of the earth. On the table are the tools of juggling/magic, used to manipulate the world of matter.

In the center is the body of the juggler. His left hand points to the sky with a wand, his right hand points to the table, or the world of matter. The shape of the arms and body resembles the Hebrew letter Aleph. His motion signifies action, which is the result of the mind’s will.

On the juggler’s head is a hat that forms the symbol of infinity. The magician/juggler is summoning divine/celestial forces to influence the physical world of matter. As above, so below is a central esoteric belief.  The role of the juggler/magician is to tap into that higher reality.

What does this have to do with the King of Hearts? The awkward pose of the heart king reminds me of the tarot’s juggler/magician. In early renderings of this card, it seems he is not holding a sword at all, but a wand of some sort aimed at his head. His right hand is pointed downward towards the earth. Could the symbolism of the tarot been transposed onto the King of Hearts?

When it comes to weird, bent-out-of-shape imagery in playing cards, there is a history of occult significance. Did the first card of the tarot, the Juggler, inspire the King of Hearts?  Below is a site showing some images of very old playing cards. Check out the King of Hearts and his wand:
Establishing a Standard

For a couple of days the asteroid 2055 YU55 got a lot of media attention. An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier approached earth traveling 30,000 miles an hour passing by closer then the moon’s orbit. The media was all over the story, yet astronomers knew it posed no threat to earth.

The asteroid served as a useful reminder. The earth got hit in the past, as recently as the Tunguska event in 1908. The Tunguska event devastated an unpopulated region of Siberia with the force of an atomic bomb.

Thankfully today we can track asteroids. If we spot one, we can determine if it might hit earth decades before its arrival. In that time it would be fairly easy to divert such an object with current technology. We already crashed probes into asteroids, no problem. We are safe from asteroids…as long as we are not caught by surprise.

Yet, the greatest prophecy of all time predicts a large asteroid will create an extinction level event, similar to what wiped out the dinosaurs. I feel the bible’s Book Of Revelation accurately describes such an event. The accuracy of this vision is scary. Thousands of years ago nobody had an inkling meteoroids existed let alone an asteroid. Rocks falling from the sky? Impossible!

The trick to understanding the bible’s final chapter is to realize it is not in sequential order; it jumps back and forth describing the same event several times. The sixth chapter begins with a description of the consequence of an asteroid strike.

Example, chapter 6: “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”

That sounds like the aftermath of an asteroid strike. The earth shakes and debris is thrown into the atmosphere darkening the sky. I like the imagery of the sky receding like a scroll as rolling clouds of debris gradually cover the planet.

Check this out: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.”

It sounds like the world’s leaders will head for their underground shelters. It seems the kings of the earth will be well aware of the approaching asteroid. But they won’t do anything to stop it! Why?

Look at chapter 8, which repeats chapter 6, but with more detail:

“The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”

“The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”

“The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.”

Fascinating. The key to this prophecy is…”something like a huge mountain, all ablaze was thrown into a sea”. What else could a flaming mountain be other then an asteroid or comet falling in the ocean causing a worldwide earthquake and throwing up fiery debris that burns much of the planet, poisons the waters and obscures the sun.

This horrible fate could be avoided if we watched the skies. It is always possible an asteroid might surprise us, but not if we are diligent. We have NASA’s Near Earth Object Program watching the skies for such dangers.

Yet bible prophecy clearly suggests we will stop looking. The only way an extinction-sized asteroid could hit earth is if we stop paying attention. Why would we do something so foolish? What could make us take our eyes off the skies?

You know, we have to balance the budget. America is struggling with massive government fiscal deficits. Who worries about asteroids? Politicians want to cut spending, and that includes NASA. I imagine one of the first places to cut federal spending will be with astronomy.

According to the bible, the “big one”‘ will certainly hit us one day, and it can only happen if the small government crowd succeeds in ending our watchfulness of the skies. Yes, we have to cut the budget. Who worries about asteroids or the end of the world?

I know someone who was born and raised in Puerto Rico.  He told me a story, which sounded like folklore, but he insisted this actually happened to his uncle.  My acquaintance said his uncle was a real son-of-a-bitch.  His uncle was not a nice guy, but a womanizer and a drinker and he would tangle with anyone who looked at him the wrong way.

Long ago, his uncle was walking down an empty rural road towards his home in his Puerto Rican village.  His uncle was alone on the road with only the moon to accompany him. Then he saw a something very strange.  A light appeared on the road, which started to follow him.  It came closer and closer.

Now this part is hard to believe, but the uncle said he saw a fiery demon, a devil with hooves and horns, all enveloped in fire.  It chased him, and he ran as if his life depended it.  The flaming demon continued to chase him and he didn’t look back until he finally did.  The fiery demon was gone.

My friend said the fiery demon was a part of local Puerto Rican folklore.  This devil would carry a whip and chase the wicked to chastise them.  I told him this sounded like a boogeyman designed to scare children into behaving themselves.  However, assuming his uncle actually did encounter something, what exactly did his uncle see?  Was this sinner actually chased by the devil?  That is what the villagers assumed.  But what really happened?

I wonder if his uncle was wandering past a marsh or swamp?  There is a well known phenomena commonly called the will-o-the-wisp, or corpse candles, ghost orbs, spook lights and so on.  There are instances when a luminance appears in the dark.  Did the uncle, perhaps drunk, witness flaming swamp gas?  That sounded like the easy answer. Yet, he said the light followed him, even chased him.  That is a telling detail.

How about ball lightning?  Ball lightning is an anomalous phenomenon that is still in dispute but seems real enough.  Ball lightning in motion could appear to have followed the uncle.  The superstitious might imagine such a mysterious light would be explained by their folklore…a flaming devil.

Or earth lights?  It is thought that stresses underground, minor fault lines grinding against each other, can create atmospheric lights called earth lights.  Again, there is no solid evidence earth lights exist.

Another option was what the uncle experienced was real paranormal activity.  If not the literal devil, perhaps a spirit nevertheless.  Below is a video of an orb from the Black Forest in Colorado.  Imagine encountering this on a lonely road.  I could see how someone might imagine the devil is chasing them.

 What to make of the accusations being thrown at Herman Cain?  He is accused of alleged sexual harassment in the workplace.  I have no clue if he did or didn’t.  The question is does it matter one way or the other?

 Powerful men cheat on their wives, or try to.  The list of politicians, CEOs, reverends, sport stars and celebrities who betrayed their spouses is endless, and we only hear about the well-known.  Are there any powerful, successful men who don’t stray?  They may be in the minority, perhaps a tiny minority.

 The average guy struggling to raise a family generally doesn’t have the opportunity to have dalliances.  He may want to, but who has the energy when faced with the everyday challenges of supporting a family?  Most guys are lucky just to have a wife or girlfriend who loves them.

 But the rich and powerful have lots of opportunity, and they have the allure of wealth and power.  This may be the natural order of things, like the male lion with his pride of lionesses.  Nature rewards the alpha-male with his harem, while the lesser males can only look on.  Perhaps this not only works in the animal kingdom, but in the world of men and women too.

 King Solomon of the Bible had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.  The God of the Old Testament did not condemn Solomon (the wisest of all men) for having many wives, but for straying from the One God.  I take this as a tacit endorsement for kings have multiple wives.  The powerful are apparently entitled to their harems.

 Today we don’t have kings, but politicians.  Many of the powerful have the King Solomon Syndrome.  Why aren’t politicians entitled to a facsimile of a harem, a woman in every city?  They are entitled, a perk of being at the top of the social/economic ladder.  What good is power if one can’t enjoy the fruits of their power, just as King Solomon did?

 Bill Clinton had the King Solomon Syndrome.  I think Bill Clinton was a successful president.  Yet he was getting BJs in the White House from an intern, and worst of all got CAUGHT.  I feel the negative reaction against Clinton’s Solomon complex lead to the election of Bush over Gore in a tight election.  America wanted a moralist back as president.  Had Al Gore been elected, I doubt America would have invaded Iraq, and I doubt the U.S. would have had an economic collapse.

 Bill Clinton’s indiscretion led to the election of George Bush and the mess that followed.  Had Clinton not fooled around, the world would have been a different place.  But he put sex above the welfare of his family and his country.

Does President Obama have the King Solomon Syndrome?  Who knows?  Yet, I don’t think Michelle would tolerate it.  I feel Obama is sort of afraid of his wife.  She’d kick the crap out of him if he tried anything.

 Does Herman Cain have the King Solomon Syndrome?  As I write this, I don’t know. But where there is smoke, there may be fire. Time will tell. There is a downside to having a president that believes he is entitled to special sexual privileges.  They imagine they are special, above the norms of society.  I don’t trust special people, because nobody is so special.  Not even King Solomon.

 On the other hand having a president who is a sexually repressed, moralistic prude is not good either.  Repressed sexuality can lead to bizarre behavior.  Is Cain a prude?  Did sexual repression erupt into sexual harassment?

We need a president with a healthy sexuality not given to extremes.  And a First Wife who keeps the President on a tight leash!

When people decorate their lawns for Halloween, do they really understand why they decorate their lawns the way they do?  Most people assume they are merely using spooky elements as part of Halloween.  Yet there is a theme that runs through many decorations and it subconsciously fits the original purpose of Halloween.  Halloween is a celebration of the dead and the spirit world.  Most Halloween decorations symbolize death.  Skeletons, ghosts, vampires, monsters, zombies…they are symbols of death and the dead.

I took a few pictures of Halloween decorations and the cemetery motif was widely used.  Tombstones and graves are obvious symbols of death.  What is so fun about death?  We face our fear of death by portraying it once a year.  The nice part is after the holiday; we pack away the decorations and can be grateful we were alive to celebrate it and the holidays ahead.

I wish everyone a happy Halloween and may we live to see another one.  Some of us won’t make it.

I saw Paranormal Activity 3 and enjoyed the movie. Most movies dealing with paranormal scares are wildly over-the-top.  Nobody believes in these special effects; CGI doesn’t scare anyone.  The Paranormal Activity movies are effective because they produce the illusion of reality.  A hallway light mysteriously turning on and off can be a more chilling then computer-generated monstrosities.

As reported on Reuters: “Paranormal” is arguable the most profitable film property of all time. The first installment, made for a mere $15,000, grossed $193.35 million worldwide. The second, made for $3 million, grossed $177.51 million worldwide.  And the third, which opened Friday, opened to $54 million — the highest-grossing opening weekend for a horror film ever and the biggest October opening ever. Its budget: $5 million.”

People respond to the paranormal!  These movies succeed because they feel real.  That is their whole premise.  Plus, it is a fairly family friendly movie compared to other horror movies.  Which begs the question: how realistic was the paranormal activity portrayed in the movie?

The movie is about a demonic poltergeist.  Poltergeist activity, as reported in real life, starts out with small knocks and such and may progress towards more significant occurrences such as objects being thrown.  There is a number of convincing documented poltergeist cases.  Skeptics dismiss these events as hoaxes or the result of children’s pranks.  However, when some of these cases are looked at in detail, we discover compelling evidence for the reality of poltergeist activity.

Paranormal Activity 3 shows some realistic activity, such as the manipulation of electronic devices (lights turn on and off), unexplained noises, even objects being pushed or hurled.  Those effects have been reported.  I also like how there is a delay between events.  Paranormal events occur infrequently.

The movie certainly exaggerates what has been described in true poltergeist situations.  An invisible force lifting someone off the ground by the hair makes for a good scare, but is not likely.  For levitation, the energy required to lift something off the ground and remain suspended in the air is much greater then to push or hurl something.  The paranormal is not supernatural.  The laws of nature still apply to a great extent.

SPOILER ALERT!  I will discuss a plot topic.  Don’t read further until you have seen the movie!

One aspect of the movie that struck me as pure Hollywood make-believe is the source of the demonic entity.  Witches!  Not real life Wiccans but the devil-worshipping witches depicted centuries ago.  Such “witches” never even existed.  Broom flying, Sabbath attending, shape-changing witches were a fabrication of Christian superstition.  Today it’s hard to imagine people were once tortured and executed in the name of hunting witches, but it happened.

To revive the evil witch stereotype is an insult to all the people who actually died because of this superstition.  I’d prefer the movie let the nameless entity remain a mysterious force.  The unexplainable is scarier and truer.  If this movie franchise begins to explain everything with typical Hollywood solutions, it will fail.  Keep it real!

Steve Jobs was a remarkable businessman. He was a genuine visionary, and how many businessmen could be described as visionary? Along with his success as a businessman, he created jobs around the world that supported many families. If one could weigh his contribution to the world, we can assume he had a positive impact on the lives of millions.

Nevertheless, Steve Jobs is now burning in hell. He is roasting, with weeping and gnashing of teeth, and will do so for all eternity. How do I know this is true? Why is Steve Jobs in hell?

The reason Steve Jobs is in hell is because he was a Buddhist.

As Christians know, all Buddhists go to hell. And it’s not that Buddhists are singled out as especially wicked. Each and every Muslim will also go to hell. So will all Hindus, Mormons, and the majority of Catholics. Everyone who does not accept conservative Christian dogma by being born-again is damned. Salvation comes thru accepting the correct theology. So sorry Steve Jobs…you belong in hell!

The damnation of Steve Jobs can be a wonderful tool for proselytism. Evangelical Christians can go to all their unsaved friends, family and acquaintances and use the fact that Steve Jobs is in hell to convert them to evangelical Christian theology. Ask them, “Do you want to be in hell like Steve Jobs when you die? If not, you need to follow my religion!” Many souls could be saved with this approach!

Then again, according to Christian belief we are saved or damned thru predestination. Before we were even born it was decided if we’d spend eternity/infinity roasting in the fires of perdition. Some might suggest this is not fair. The proper response would be: life is not fair, and neither is salvation. Get over it!

Famed evangelical prophet Harold Camping failed in his previous May 21 prediction of a rapture of true believers followed by a physical end-of-the-world. This event became a news story in the world media. When the rapture did not occur, he suggested his May 21 prediction was a spiritual event to be followed by a physical end-of-the-world event happening on October 21.

Yeah, we can dismiss him as a crank. But maybe he had an actual psychic premonition and misinterpreted it as a message from God? A true premonition can become a big deal for a religious individual, even if the premonition is not from God but from innate psychic abilities.

On May 21, 2011 there were a number of unusual earthquakes:

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake hit San Francisco at 2:41 PT October 21.

Hours earlier a rare 4.6 magnitude earthquake hit San Antonio Texas, the biggest since 1993.

Again, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit near the Raoul Islands around New Zealand.

Opposite the earth, a magnitude 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the south pacific south of Tonga.

This was not exactly the end of days. But it would be a good day for someone trying to predict earthquakes. I give him credit for that. Camping may not be God’s prophet, but he might be a minor league psychic with delusions of grandeur.

I will offer a story of an unusual near-death experience. Sally told me an account concerning her mother who had died 20 years ago. Her mother, named Nancy, had a stroke and was sent to the hospital. Nancy already had a bad heart, so the stroke was another very challenging health problem.

During her stay in the hospital Nancy told her daughter about a strange experience; she thought she had died in the hospital but returned to life. During that time she felt she left her body.

When Nancy left her body she did not describe the NDE as is typically told. She did not hover over her body or experience a tunnel of light. Instead she felt herself sinking into the ground. She was under the ground when she arose again above ground, but then sank back into the earth. Then she appeared in a large room.

This room looked like a waiting room that is typical everywhere, so she sat down. Nancy recalled she was missing her glasses and dentures and felt self-conscious about that. People were sitting on chairs waiting for someone or something. Occasionally a door would open, and a light would emanate from the door as someone seated would get up and pass through the doorway.

For some reason she thought her deceased daughter-in-law might be in this room. Nancy’s daughter-in-law died three years previously and she had been very fond of her. She got up to walk around looking at those seated. Then she saw her…sitting on a chair. She approached her daughter-in-law who smiled and said, “I’ll be waiting for you here.”

The mysterious waiting room disappeared and she was back in her hospital room. Nancy related this story to Sally, and both thought it strange. Unfortunately, three weeks later, while still in the hospital Nancy caught pneumonia and died.

Sally was unable to find her mother’s glasses or dentures for her funeral, so Nancy was buried without them. The spot where Nancy was buried was not the best location in the cemetery. The grass around the grave was not green and it just wasn’t an attractive spot. So the family decided to dig her up and rebury their mother in a more appealing area in the cemetery.

Shortly afterwards Sally finally came across her mother’s glasses and dentures. Then Nancy’s strange story struck her. In Nancy’s account she descended into the earth, arose from it, only to go back into the earth. That is what happened with her burial. Her coffin was taken up from the earth only to be reburied again. And she was buried without her glasses and dentures, which she described in her story as well.  Events surrounding her funeral had been predicted during her NDE.